1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a remote management system and method, and in particular, it relates to a remote management system and method that provides an operation guide wizard to assist users to complete operating instruction of specific functions on remote computers and also provides users with homonyms and synonyms search functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switches are connected between a user end control console and multiple controlled computers, so that a user may use one set of keyboard, monitor ad mouse to control multiple controlled computers. Over-IP KVM switches, also known as IP-based KVM switches, are a type of KVM switches that have a network interface for users of desktop or laptop computers to control remote computers through computer networks. In addition, over-IP serial-interface management apparatus and power management apparatus also allow desktop or laptop computer users to manage multiple remote serial devices or power supplies of the controlled remote computers.
The above described over-IP KVM switches, over-IP serial-interface management devices and over-IP power management devices all have different properties (hereinafter collectively referred to as “over-IP apparatus”), so they all have their own management interface programs, and users must switch between them to select different types of over-IP apparatus. For example, when a user is operating through an over-IP KVM, if the user wants to control the power supply of the computer controlled by the over-IP KVM, the user must switch to the management interface program of the over-IP power management apparatus. This is often inconvenient in remote management operation.
To solve these problems, recently a remote management apparatus known as “control center” or “command center” has been developed to combine the management interface programs of the three different over-IP apparatus into a single management interface program. An example of such remote power management apparatus is a model number CC2000 control center provided by ATEN International Inc. of Taiwan. The management interface of CC2000 can simultaneously manage all three different types of remote over-IP apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, which illustrates a user end first computer 1 connected through network 2 to an above described control center 3A to control multiple over-IP apparatus 3 and also indirectly visit and control the computers 4a-4c controlled by the multiple over-IP apparatus 3. As shown in FIG. 1, the user end first computer 1 is coupled through network 2 to control center 3A (e.g., CC2000), and through the control center 3A to control multiple over-IP apparatus 3, so the user of the first computer can visit and control multiple remote second computers 4a-4c through over-IP apparatus 3. The monitor of the user end first computer 1 will display the image of the console interface of the remote second computers 4a-4c for the control operations by the user.
However, the number of over-IP apparatus managed by such a remote management apparatus can be over one thousand, which forms a huge and complicated remote management system. For an ordinary user who has not studied in detail the operation guides of the remote management system and the over-IP apparatus, it is hard to understand how to manage the complicated remote management system and utilize the complicated functions of the over-IP apparatus, such as the system configuration set up, backup and restore functions. Moreover, the newer generation over-IP apparatus come with more diverse and complicated functions. Users, particularly novice users, need to spend a lot of time and efforts to memorize the operation process steps of each function before they can comfortably operate and control the remote management systems and over-IP apparatus. For ordinary users this is very inconvenient.